Donald Trump urged to scrap Barack Obama's climate change strategy by officials from 24 states

The Clean Power Plan is designed to cut carbon emission from coal power plants by a third

Vijaykumar Vedala

Friday 16 December 2016 13:10 GMT

Donald Trump is currently on a victory tour of the US (Getty Images)

Officials in 24 states have urged US President-elect Donald Trump to kill the centrepiece of President Barack Obama's strategy to combat climate change and shut down coal-fired power plants.

The coalition requested the incoming Republican government undo the Clean Power Plan enacted by the current Democratic administration.

The law was designed to lower carbon emissions mainly from coal-fired power plants by 2030 to 32 percent below 2005 levels.

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1/1010 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change

10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change

A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica

Kira Morris

10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change

Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others.

Hira Ali

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Smoke – filled with the carbon that is driving climate change – drifts across a field in Colombia.

Sandra Rondon

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Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050.

Probal Rashid

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Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. “Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals,” says the photographer. “Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow.”

Rizwan Dharejo

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Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent.

Tom Schifanella

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A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures.

Abrar Hossain

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A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature.

Riddhima Singh Bhati

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A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a “public health emergency”.

Leung Ka Wa

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Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions.

Mahtuf Ikhsan

The Supreme Court has ordered a delay in implementation until legal challenges to the regulation are completed.

The group, headed by Patrick Morrisey and Ken Paxton, the attorney generals of West Virginia and Texas, suggests Congress take action to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from drafting similar regulations in the future.

“The order should explain that it is the administration's view that the (Clean Power Plan) is unlawful and that EPA lacks authority to enforce it.

“The executive order is necessary to send an immediate and strong message to states and regulated entities that the administration will not enforce the rule,” according to Mr Morrisey.

Mr Trump's potential cabinet is filling with nominees from top fossil fuel-producing states.

He tapped Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt, an ardent opponent of Mr Obama's measures to curb climate change, to run the Environmental Protection Agency and Rick Perry, a climate skeptic and former governor of Texas, to head the Department of Energy.

Mr Trump has promised to revive oil and gas drilling and coal mining by cutting back on federal regulations.

He also has said he would pull the United States out of a global deal to curb emissions of carbon dioxide, which an overwhelming number of scientists say contribute to changes to the climate that are leading to sea level rise, droughts and more frequent violent storms.

Copyright Reuters

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